Filed under: How-tos, iBook, Mods
How to cram a PCMCIA WiFi card into your iBook
Livejournal
user tanais decided that he wanted to get his 700mhz iBook on his wireless network, but didn't want to pay sky-high
prices for a discontinued 802.11b card. So, he took a $16 Orinoco
Silver PCMCIA card, physically stripped it down to its bare essentials (so that it would fit underneath the iBook's
keyboard), wrapped it in electrical tape (for insulation), crammed it into place and what do you know, it worked. Some
great photos accompany his article. Well done!Now for the disclaimer: Kids, don't try this at home.
[Via Make:Blog]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Joshua Ochs said 11:09PM on 2-16-2006
Actually, I'm quite tempted to try this at home if an 802.11g card could be similarly retrofitted. Otherwise there's no way to add 802.11g to an older iBook.
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justin said 11:58PM on 2-16-2006
Pfft, call me when you've crammed an EV-DO card in that baby. =P
Reply
enrico tedeschi said 3:35AM on 2-17-2006
but....Ithought apple cards had a DIFFERENT pin rrangement than the ordinary ones !?!
???
ciao
enrico
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glad said 9:21AM on 2-17-2006
Why bother attempting it when you can just buy a Belkin USB adapter (works on usb 1 or usb 2 ports) and use that on an iBook (needs to run 10.3+). The info re drivers etc is available here http://www.symplification.com/node/209?from=10&comments_per_page=10
I like plug and play not strip down reweld and then pray!
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Timmay said 10:45AM on 2-17-2006
I wonder if this will work on a Pismo Powerbook?
Timmay
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ToeKnee said 11:20AM on 2-17-2006
"I wonder if this will work on a Pismo Powerbook?"
You don't need to on a Pismo-- it has the cardbus slot (PCMCIA)-- you can just plug in any of number of wifi cards that use the same chipset as Airport Extreme cards (I use a Buffalo), and the computer thinks you have an Airport Extreme card in it.
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fra said 2:33PM on 2-17-2006
I would have just bought a USB Dongle...
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Wojtek said 6:02PM on 2-17-2006
I did the same thing with the very same card to fit it into an G3 iMac SL 350. It is too big for an iMac slot (with the appropriate adapter for Airport card), so not only had I to strip it down, but also I had to bend it a bit for fitting.
Works as a charm.
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Lada said 2:34AM on 4-07-2006
Z-COM XI-325 XI-330 XI-300 from http://www.zcomax.co.uk
and you don't have to do this crazy hack which is sticking out of your ibook... This PCMCIA card I can fit very well to my iBook G3 blueberry. You just have to replace the connector to MMCX-R.
I don't know how it is with support for this card on MacOSX though.. But I'm running linux it is not a problem since it is supported in kernel already.
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